Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1887-10-25

Attorney General Garland has given no-
tice of motion to be made in the Supreme
court of the United States to advance for i'm
mediate decision a case which would ordina-
rily net come up for adjudication for several
years, and this upon the ground of the great
importance of the case to banking interests
The receiver of the First National bank of
Buffalo, New York, brought suit against the
directors of the bank to hold them response
BILE for losses sustained by the bank through
their neglect of duty and failure to exercise
proper vigilance and control The State
court held that under the common law the
directors could not be held responsible for
mismanagement of which they were not
personally or actually guilty. The comp
troller of the currency doubted this as law
and directed an appeal to the Supreme court
of the United States.
In deciding the Chicago ssbueket Shop
case Judge Collins made some remarks which
merit general attention. Said he: Is court
of equity shorn of it's power because this is a
private corporation, organized for selfish
ends? Must the public go without remedy?
No, the results, not the agency producing
them, must determine the relief. Courts
owe to the public protection primarily, tc
the individual seoondarily. The right to USE
property is subject to limitations and cor
relative duties. Never has there
been time when this claim of immunity tt
private enterprise has been so specially and
persistently urged. Gas trusts, oil trusts
coal trusts, representing mobi
lization of capital to control prices on th'
one hand, and labor unions, trades unions
association to fix the price of labor on th'
other; vet these, one and all
claim to be private enterprises and for tn
benefit of their members, and hence abov,
law and regulation.
A recent addition to the service of detect
ing criminals, which is being tried, 1t is said
at Joliet, Detroit and some other places il
this country, is the anthropometric system
of Identification. 1t is nothing more thar
the addition to the ordinary rogues' CALLER,
of a register of carefully taken measurement
of certain parts of the criminsls' bodies. Th'
usual measurements are the length anc
WIUIn OF Gn6 nSdt1, CnS 16ngGu VI tuS IeIG IOOC
the left forearm, and of the little and middle
fingers of the left hand; the length of the
right ear, and also that of the trunk o.
the body, taken when seated; the
full stretch of the arms and the total height
of the body. Attention is also paid tc
special marks or scars and to persona
deformities and Irregularities of fig
ure. The measurements are taken witt
sliding and caliper eompasses, graduated
rules and other scientifically accurate instru,
ments. It is claimed that after maturity is
reached these measurements will remain
practically the same until after death, afford
ing much surer means of Identification thar
the features, hair, beard or skin. AS an in
stance of the unreliability of photographs al
means of positive Identification, it ia sale
that in Scotland Yard there are sixty differ
ent photographs of one person, a notoriou;
German girl; each of which SO differs from
all the others as to deceive the cleverest de
tectiyes. France, Italy, Germany, Spain
and Denmark have adopted the anthropo
metric system in their prisons.